I was 15 years old, in the early 70's when an older friend took me to Paris in his Porsche. He ran a bar/club in Ghent, Belgium where I lived at the time and after closing his bar, around 4 in the morning we drove down to Paris; a 2 and half hour drive in his car! When we arrived we went straight to Club ‘7’, Rue St Anne nr 7 near the Opera. Very private and exclusive; one could enter this place after being introduced by a member and since my friend knew all the right people there, there was no problem for me to get in.

This was a so called discothèque; a combination of restaurant and bar/club and open untill the last customers left so the place was still packed when we arrived at 7 o’clock in the morning. The upperfloor was the bar area and restaurant and downstairs was the club and dancefloor. You could hear the music and noise coming from downstairs and the place was frequented by the Parisian ‘beau monde'; artists, fashion-models, -photographers, trendy gays and lots of assorted freaks. An amazing mix of nightpeople in very glamorous surroundings.

It was also the club where DJ Guy Guevas was playing early Disco Music; Cerrone, Gloria Gaynor, Patrick Juvet, next to records by Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango and assorted French pop songs in his set; the typical French taste at the time. Guevas later became resident DJ at mega disco ‘Le Palace’; the other legendary club by Fabrice Emar.

It was at club ‘7’ that I first heard the hit ‘Soul Makossa’ by Manu Dibango. The song definitely suited the room and the people gathered, it was sleazy and sweaty and ‘black’ in a glam way. All mirrors around a small dancefloor with loungeseats and private areas around it. And there was some frenetic dancing to a great soundsystem too. Don’t forget this was Paris with lots of African culture and that le ‘7’ was famous for it’s music and very funky black dancers. The celebrities surely brought in another element that made 'le 7' legendary; the glitter and glamour of real Stars!

Barry White with Love Unlimited after a Parisian concert chilling out in a private corner of the club... Grace Jones, before she started her modelling career, drew attention by falling down the stairs on her way to the downstairs club, not because she tripped over but because of the photographers waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

Or fashionmodel Pat Cleveland dancing on the table next to you, her skirt lifted; showing nothing but the raw naked truth shaved and dyed into the form of a pink heart!

I was not a deejay, I was a Bouncer at many, many clubs. My first night as a Bouncer at The Copacabana in 1977 was a trip. Mobsters, stars, Drug Dealers, you name it, they were there. The music was incredible. It was love!! I loved that work. Being there at the front. My first night, I came home with over $300 in Tips!! And there was no trouble. Great start of my Night Life Career.

Finley

Post subject: My First Club Experience

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:00 am

Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:50 amPosts: 230Location: Boston

I went to a place called BOSTON BOSTON, I was 18. The place was full of people. Black or white, straight or gay. They were there. I asked a female to dance, we were going good, I thought I was going to get lucky. I mean, I was making out with her. But I could not hear her speaking to me, the music was too loud. Finally she pressed herself up against me, leaned into my ear, and as I felt a woody touching my thighs, she whispered in my ear,"Hello, my name is Ralph"!!! Maybe that is why I hate gays!! That is what my shrink says!

Widows was actually where the Rum Bottoms in the Grove once stood,right next to the Playhouse.

Jussi

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:20 am

Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:32 pmPosts: 161Location: Finland

I was a pre-teen kid when my parents took me to a night club in south of France for an early night dinner. There was music already and at one point my mum got up to shimmy. This was the late 60's so you can imagine what it looked like. Some years later we went to Ibiza, and one night, to Pacha's with older friends. No wildly frugging parents thank god. I have no idea why they let me in, there must have been a law in Spain prohibiting minors from places serving alcohol -? I danced madly with a then extremely attractive girl called Meiju who years later became a dj and then for some reason, a hugely popular eurovision-style schlager singer in Finland. The music was soul stuff combined with bubblegum flava bongo beats. This triggered something in my brain, resulting in all my rock vinyls getting thrown out when I got back home. I then gradually started getting in to over 18's night clubs to perform the bump and the hustle, thinking I was the greatest dancer in town - which I in fact was, no point being modest here.
The djs were mostly really bad in my town so it was logical I had to intervene some years into the partying. I wasn't much better myself in the beginning of course. But in a few years...
When my mother questioned my musical tastes and overall loose conduct, I reminded her about the tabletops of St Tropez and certain women who danced there in polka-dot bikinis. I blame my parents for my discomania.

My first Disco Club experience was at 1978.I was 12 years old and my father was a good friend with the owner of the biggest Disco in Athens so we go there to vist him.I have all the memories like it was yesterday,the DJ was playin' Andrea True connection's ''What's Your Name What's Your Number'',the lights,the mood.I saw all these sexy women at the dancefloor and next....the DJ booth and I have no illusions about what my future is!!!

eedeecee

Post subject:

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:44 am

Joined: Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:45 amPosts: 70Location: Amsterdam

Jussi wrote:

I was a pre-teen kid when my parents took me to a night club in south of France for an early night dinner. There was music already and at one point my mum got up to shimmy. This was the late 60's so you can imagine what it looked like. Some years later we went to Ibiza, and one night, to Pacha's with older friends. No wildly frugging parents thank god. I have no idea why they let me in, there must have been a law in Spain prohibiting minors from places serving alcohol -? I danced madly with a then extremely attractive girl called Meiju who years later became a dj and then for some reason, a hugely popular eurovision-style schlager singer in Finland. The music was soul stuff combined with bubblegum flava bongo beats. This triggered something in my brain, resulting in all my rock vinyls getting thrown out when I got back home. I then gradually started getting in to over 18's night clubs to perform the bump and the hustle, thinking I was the greatest dancer in town - which I in fact was, no point being modest here. The djs were mostly really bad in my town so it was logical I had to intervene some years into the partying. I wasn't much better myself in the beginning of course. But in a few years... When my mother questioned my musical tastes and overall loose conduct, I reminded her about the tabletops of St Tropez and certain women who danced there in polka-dot bikinis. I blame my parents for my discomania.

Jussi, it seems that we have France as a similar point of reference when it comes to early disco experiences....I reckon that the wild nights in St Tropez must have been around 1974?? In those days clubs were often combined with restaurants or vice versa; a restaurant with a dancefloor, often with live bands or the occasional dj, who was probably a barman or the owner with a big record collection.

Discothèques in France in the early sixties were the template for Disco in the seventies, n'est ce pas??

[quote="eedeecee"][quote=
Jussi, it seems that we have France as a similar point of reference when it comes to early disco experiences....I reckon that the wild nights in St Tropez must have been around 1974?? In those days clubs were often combined with restaurants or vice versa; a restaurant with a dancefloor, often with live bands or the occasional dj, who was probably a barman or the owner with a big record collection.

Discothèques in France in the early sixties were the template for Disco in the seventies, n'est ce pas??[/quote]

I don't quite know when it was that I witnessed my mother dance in St Tropez having been too young to take note of the actual year but it was around 1969 to 1971. My parents say we did go to that resort during those years. Judging by the fashions seen in the family photographs must have been around then. There's my mum, seated in a café in the harbour, smoking a cigarette, wearing shades and turquoise a mini caftan! There's my dad, also wearing shades, in a beard and what - a bean necklace!! Can these hipsters really be my parents?! They vote conservative now. - My world-rocking Ibiza experience was apparently late in 1974 - at the time Bohannon's South African Man was big.

tomcat

Post subject: Re: What was your first club experience? Describe it to me

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:45 am

Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:12 pmPosts: 49Location: LONDON

Wow being 15 and going to a club was popular with you guys on this forum. I was 15 too when i had my first club experience. I was taken to a place in Sydney called "Patches" by a friend that was more into the New romantic / New wave scene. I not only like my disco but also had a love for all the white European music too. I remember walking in a and being terrified as it was not only first club experience but the club was gay too!The people in the club girls and boys had full on make up on and there were lots of Goths and New Wavers mixed in with Leather Queens. I was "fascinated"!The dance floor was one of those flashing electronic ones that chased to the music. Brilliant! The music was a mixture of stuff like "Party" (Julius brown) , New Oder and The Cure. I stood there still terrified but watching as I had found my new home. After that night I kept going back and then discovered other clubs in the area. Note- I do move with the times and am not a dj stuck in a "time warp" but it would be so nice relive it all over again. Oh if only we could "Turn back time"

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